Makeover for the Old Gray Lady

Forbes.com:

An internal committee at The New York Times has recommended several steps to help increase readers' confidence in the newspaper, including making reporters and editors more accessible through e-mail, reducing errors, and increasing coverage of middle America and religion. ... The committee proposed taking steps including encouraging high-ranking editors to write a regular column dealing with the internal workings of the Times, using the Internet to provide documents used for stories and transcripts of interviews, and further curtailing the use of anonymous sources.

This seem like good ideas and positive steps to me. The best way to deal with charges of bias is to be transparent. If the Times is not biased (and while I think it is, I don't think it is nearly as biased as many think it is) a good understanding amoung the readers of how and why they select their stories and why they are presented in a certain way will go a long way toward showing that. Being open too, and listening to, criticism can also work to correct any bias that there may be. It can also help highlight areas where they are not biased per se, but simply lack the needed skills and knowledge to properly report on an issue. I certainly don't desire a 'conservative' New York Times, personally I want a time that honestly and completely as possible reports the news. As far as I am concerned, the Time's editorial page can be as biased as it wants, that is what an editorial page is for after all, but the news sections should certainly strive to be a free from that as humanly possible.